Sanheim twins hoping to play together this season on the Hitmen

Laurence Heinen, For the Calgary Herald08.26.2014

Travis Sanheim carries the puck up ice during Hitmen training camp on Monday. His twin brother Taylor left the ice early on Monday, bound for the hospital for stitches after taking a stick to the face.

Travis Sanheim broke out in a big way last year with the Calgary Hitmen.

This season, he’s hoping his twin brother Taylor will have the same opportunity.

“That would be great,” said Travis after playing two scrimmages on Monday during Hitmen training camp at the Don Hartman NE Sportsplex. “To have two Sanheims playing with the Hitmen would be pretty cool.”

Unfortunately for Taylor, he took a stick to the face in the first period of Monday’s early scrimmage and had to be taken to the hospital to get stitches.

“Obviously it’s tough to see especially that early in a game when he’s trying to vie for a spot right now,” said Travis, who grew up playing hockey at every level with Taylor in Elkhorn, Man. “It’s tough for him, but hopefully he recovers quickly and gets back out there.”

Hitmen general manager Mike Moore said that despite the injury, Taylor will be given a further chance during the pre-season to crack Calgary’s lineup.

New Hitmen head coach Mark French is looking forward to seeing Taylor suit up in exhibition action.

“The fortunate part of it is, from an early prognosis, it looks like he’s going to be OK, other than a couple stitches,” French said. “Hopefully that’s the only thing that he’s worse for wear.”

Not identical twins, the 18-year-old Sanheim brothers employ vastly different playing styles.

Travis is a 6-foot-3, 185-pound defenceman, who scored five goals to go with 29 assists in 67 games last year in his rookie season with the Hitmen. He went from a relative unknown prospect to being selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round (17th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

Taylor, meanwhile, split last season with the Dauphin Kings and Portage Terriers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. The 5-foot-10, 188-pound forward racked up 15 goals to go with 13 assists in 53 games.

“Right from the get-go, I’ve always been a d-man and he’s always been a forward,” said Travis, who enjoyed the chance to play on the same team with his brother during the first day of main camp on Sunday. “Obviously we’ve played together growing up our whole lives, so we kind of find each other out there on the ice and know where each other is going to be. Hopefully, I can play more with him.”

Travis is also looking forward to eventually reuniting with his defence partner Ben Thomas. The two have played on different teams so far during training camp.

“We’re pretty competitive guys, so going up against each other was a good battle,” Travis said. “Not having him on the right side of me was a little different, but it’s something that you’ve got to get used to sometimes.”

Thomas said it was strange to see his defence partner on the other side of the ice.

“It’s not really something we’re used to, but it’s fun to play against him and to battle against him as opposed to being his D partner all the time,” said Thomas, who enjoyed the experience of being chosen by the Tampa Bay Lightning (in the fourth round, 119th overall) in the same draft class as Sanheim. “It’s incredible. Throughout the year playing with each other we helped each other out and we both climbed our way up the NHL radar and were able to both get drafted.”

Travis scored once and set up another to help Team Red beat Team Black 5-2 on Monday before adding another goal during a 8-4 loss to Team White.

Terrell Draude notched a hat trick in Team White’s victory to lessen the sting of an earlier 10-1 setback to Team Black.

“I guess the bounces just were going my way,” said Draude, who would like to carry his momentum into Tuesday night’s intra-squad game at the Max Bell Centre (7 p.m.). “I’m still fighting for a position on the roster. I want to play a lot more than I did last year. Every game’s important and I want to make as much of impression as I can.”

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